Report By Rick Becker
Page 7
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Gemstones & Other Odds
And Ends
Over the course of two and a half days at the show, I collected a number of
real gemstones that were not necessarily part of any system, but deserve
special mention.
Outside of the Audio Connection room I finally ran into Mike Latvis of Harmonic
Resolution Systems and arranged for him to send me a sample of his Analog
Disk record clamp. An initial check indicates that it works with my Linn
turntable, so a review will be in progress by the time you read this. Look for it in the July or August issue. If you didn't notice,
Mike's gorgeous equipment racks, which I covered in my Montreal report, were
found in major rooms throughout the show.
Peter Bizlewicz of Symposium Acoustics was also at the show
displaying his Rollerblocks, platforms and shelves, and his equipment rack
that incorporates his Rollerblock technology. On display in prototype
form was a new platform for turntables that has vertical compression, is extra
thick, and will be available for custom orders to suit your turntable.
But most convincing was a demonstration he performed with a long bar of
aluminum and a hammer. With one end on the floor and the other in his
hand, he struck the bar with the hammer, and it rang. No surprise here.
He then put the lower end on a piece of sorbothane on the floor and hit the
bar again. It rang LOUDER! Next, he placed the lower end of
the bar on a small Symposium Point Pod (2”x3”) on the floor and hit the
bar with the hammer again. It merely made a quiet clunk, with no
ringing. He later repeated the sequence with me holding the bar, so that
I might feel the vibration. The results were essentially replicated in a
tactile form. Having reviewed his Isis platform, Svelte shelf,
Rollerblock and Rollerblock Jrs, I suppose the next step would be to try the
smaller Point Pods and Fat Padz. I continue to use all of his products
in my reference system to great benefit.
Peter Bizlewicz, Symposium Acoustics
Yet another high-tech platform builder, Silent Running Audio (SRA),
was new to me, but apparently has been around for a while. They seem to
specialize in component-specific shelves, but now also offer several levels of
shelf products, as well as a component rack. Their shelves were in use
in the Epiphany/Tenor/EMM Labs room I visited early on Sunday, where I thought
their SRA logo/label was inordinately obtrusive, but I suppose you could
always spin the shelf 180 degrees.
EquaRack equipment racks were in use in several rooms I visited and
though I don't understand all of the technology and variations they offer,
the stands looked a great deal more substantial than the images on their
website suggested to me before the show.
Soundations, from South Africa (?), had a number of contemporary
equipment racks on display. Two in particular caught my eye. The
first had shelves suspended with flexible O-rings.
The second rack, at $2700, and reportedly the better sounding of the two,
uses metal springs beneath the shelves. (Reminds me of my Linn
turntable). I especially appreciated the wood veneered sides of this rack.
Kimber Kable had their Kimber Select KS 1030 on display featuring
the new WBT Nextgen RCA connectors that take the minimum contact area approach
pioneered by Eichmann Technology. The price of $47 (each RCA connector)
sticks in my mind, but don't hold me to that. The cables, of course,
are much more expensive.
Also on display was the new Kimber Timbre interconnect, which replaces the
PBJ. With the same design, but using clear dielectric instead of
colored, Kimber achieved even greater clarity.
Equi=Tech is well known for its balanced power conditioners and they
were used in a number of the best sounding rooms at the show. They also
had a booth where I could get up close and personal with the new Son of Q
($1179) which Martin Glasband claims has 80% of benefit of the larger Q
conditioners at about half the price. Son of Q has an output capacity of
1500 watts for source components only, or entire systems with modest
amplifiers. An even smaller, and presumably less expensive, Son of Q Jr.
has a 1000 watt load capacity. Balanced Power to the people!
As I was rapping with Martin about my adventures in his native Oregon, Stereophile writer Robert Deutsch came up and switched the conversation to
the awesome Equi=Tech Wall Cabinet system, that is essentially a huge panel
box distribution center for balanced power to large facilities, like say, the
multiple listening rooms and home theaters in your mansion. The unit
runs about $4200, but they are thinking of developing a smaller one, about
2' wide, for about $3600.
Martin Glasband with Stereophile's Robert Deutsch.
Should you somehow have managed to bring your system to the state of
perfection and are still $4000 or so under budget, might I
suggest a fine wood sculpture from a Florida artisan such as the one
pictured here. I had to look twice to see if it was playable.
Faroudja is best known for their expertise in video processing, and
their chip is common in video projectors and home theater receivers. The
two gems I spotted on silent display were their relatively new
second-generation DVP4000 ($15K) and DVP1510 ($10K) DVD/CD
player/processor/preamplifier, which premiered at CES in January. With
an internal DVD drive, it has selectable output scan rates, HDTV
cross-conversion and transcoding, analog and DVI video inputs and outputs, and
their own imaging technology, of course. It is also HDCP compatible.
The audio stage is said to be of audiophile quality, and all audio and video
processing is done directly in the digital domain, including DVD-A and SACD in
the more expensive model. Does this start to sound like the modified
Phillips player and EMM Labs pre-processor? –all in one box! Just add the
video projector or plasma screen, power amplifiers and loudspeakers of your own
choice.
Hudson Audio Technologies had a booth at the Montreal show and I
took a look at their products back then. They showed up again at New
York and I took another look. They make a variety of silver and
silver/copper loudspeaker cables and interconnects at relatively reasonable
prices. They also have a heavy-duty eight-outlet power strip with
hospital grade outlets — no filtration, for the purist.
The same gentleman from New Jersey also sells a variety of odd pieces that
caught my attention, not the least of which was a pair of Earmax tube
headphone amplifiers. I tried the standard Earmax with a CD source and
was reminded of how good they are. That they are also very cute little
tube amplifiers, is just icing on the cake. Next to it was the Earmax
Pro Anniversary model on a nice little polished granite shelf, with a power
supply that looked about 50% larger than the standard model. The same
model headphones were used for both, but the Pro model was taking its signal
from a turntable playing a Leonard Cohen LP. In the noisy room, it was
difficult to judge any difference, in spite of the apple to orange comparison.
Both were a great pleasure to listen to, and you wouldn't go wrong either
way. It just comes down, once again, to "What's in your
wallet?"
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